Do you depend on your computer for your living? If so, I'm sure you've thought long and hard about which hardware and software to use. I'd like to explain why I use generic "white boxes" running open source software. These give me a platform I rely on for 100% availability. They also provide a low-cost solution with excellent security and privacy.

It's almost impossible to sell the concept of Open Source to a board. "We spend money developing a product, then we give away the source code for free so anyone can build their own copy??? What kind of insane business do you think we are running??" Building a viable business proposition that produces Open Source is incredibly hard - moreover, succeeding with an Open Source business model is exponentially harder than using a closed source one. Not impossible, but most larger companies that do this kind of thing also have other interested (Google, as an example, have the search and advertising business to prop up their many free/open projects.)